Thankful Thursday- Monkey Joes

Thankful Thursday is BACK! Come join me and say “thanks!” to people in your life!



Today we decided (ok, Little Man BEGGED and begged) to go to Monkey Joes. If you have no idea what that is, think lots of inflatable bounce houses indoors. It is really fun, and Little Man loves it. He asks at least once a week to go to “Jumping Joes”



We colored our card today and even put stickers on it. When we got to Monkey Joes, one of our favorite employees was working the front counter, so we gave her the card. She LOVED it. She read it and then gave Little Man a hug. I think we made her day!



Are you teaching your kids to say thank you?

One Of Those Mamas.

I am one of those Mamas.

Ya know?

The ones that nurse their babies past 6 months. Past 12 months.

The ones that would struggle but be so determined (read, stubborn) to make nursing work.

The ones that rear-faces past 20 lbs and 12 months.

The ones that wear their baby. Or their toddler. Or both.

The ones that question the mainstream way most of the time.

The ones that share their bed with their babies.

The ones that can not stand to hear their babies cry.

The ones that thinks crying-it-out sleep training is cruel.

The ones that uses cloth diapers even when everyone thought they were crazy for doing so.

The ones that let their kid play in the dirt, get all muddy and play in the rain.

The ones that makes all their babies food from fresh veggies and fruits and does not start feeding them solids till past 6 months.

The ones that when the child falls down, tells the child to “get back up, brush it off, and go play!”

The ones that plan to home school, but have not even started to look into what they are going to do.

The ones that are in no rush to start schooling.

The ones that will go upstairs 15 times to re-tuck the toddler back into bed.

The ones that give their toddler chocolate milk before bed.

The ones that will do anything to be able to stay home with their babies.

The ones that let their toddler eat brownies for breakfast. Just not every day.

The ones that does not get dressed unless they are leaving the house. And even then, they don't getting all fancy.

The ones that love to tell their birth stories. Little Mans birth made me a mother, but Little Miracles defined me as a woman.

The ones that forgets to blog for a long time then has so much on their mind they can’t get it all out!

The ones that could, if given the time, sit on the couch all day long and not move.

The ones that can not go a day without putting their hair in a ponytail.

The ones that go back and read old blog posts and notice all the grammatical errors, but don’t bother to fix them.

What kind of Mama are you?

Little Miracle

My Little Miracle is 9 months old!! Just over 9 months ago I was shocked and surprised to have an unassisted homebirth.

I tell people that if he had been my first child, he would have been my last. He is very difficult, needy, fussy. But I love him just the same.

He loves to be held, loves to nurse, still loves to be swaddled.

He gets his feelings hurt easily. Loud noises make him cry.

He loves it when Daddy sings to him.

He loves to play with his older brothers toys. (To which, I always hear Little Man saying “no, MINE!”)

He puts everything in his mouth. He hates squash and avocados.

He would prefer breast milk over solids.

He flirts with the best of ‘em. The ladies love him.

He is very serious, and likes to study people and things.

He rarely laughs, but when he does, it is infectious.

He is my Little Miracle.

Overflowing With Joy

My heart is overflowing tonight. Every few months or so I look at my Little Man and I think “This age is my FAVORITE!” I am doing it again.

He will be 3 a month from tomorrow. I don’t believe it. No, I don’t want to believe it.

Just last week he was that 7 lb tiny baby placed into my arms after a hell of a lot of work pushing him out. Now he is an independent, loving, funny, outgoing, shall I say, little man.

The things this kid says make my heart melt. He always says “I do it myself” with the emphasis on “myself”. He makes himself proud. He makes his mama even prouder. (Is that even a word?) He always says “peas” and “tank you” and even says “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am”, even to Daddy. Hey, he is learning.

About a month ago, I was awoken by Little Miracle. He sleeps in our bed. (I love it. Don’t knock it till you try it. And always practice SAFE co-sleeping) I was snuggling with him and nursing him back to sleep when I thought I heard noises coming from Little Mans room. Once Little Miracle was back asleep, I went to Little Mans room. I laid down at his door to peek under and see if he was playing or sleeping. As soon as I got my head on the floor, I hear from the other side of the door “Hi Mama!!” in a “hey, Mamas here and I get to play” tone of voice. Mind you, this was 3 am. I got off the floor, and opened his door. It took a few books, and a talking to him that we don’t get up until the sun gets up, to get him back in bed.

Last week I went to get him out of his bed to get ready to go to church. I had already gotten dressed and I chose to wear a blue dress I bought at Old Navy that has flowers on the bottom. I snuck into his room, and sat on the side of his bed. I rubbed his back, which woke him up. He sat up with a smile, and said “Mommy wearing flowers. Mommy a princess.”

He loves to ride his bike outside. Just tonight he learned how to actually pedal the thing. Been telling him to use the pedals for months now, but he didn’t want to. He does everything on his own time, just like he has from the day he was born.

He is almost 3, but he will always be my Little Man.

Big Boy Toys

We parked next to this Corvette today. Little Man was impressed.



Boys and their toys...

My Adventures In Potty Training

Yup. We have gone there! I always said I would wait until Little Man was ready before we attempted to potty train him. I would ask him if he wanted to potty train, and he would say "YES!!!" thinking it was a train. I thought he was ready a few weeks ago, as he went all day in the potty, but the next day he was asking for his diapers back. He would hold it all day when naked and as soon as he got his diaper on he would be soaked.

This week he woke up from his nap dry twice. The second day I told him when he got up that if he peed in the potty, we would go to Monkey Joes. I totally did not expect his next move. He walked over to the potty and went! So we packed up the car and went off to Monkey Joes.

That night I decided he was ready. I had tried M&Ms before and they did not work. I figured we would try a reward chart. He is still obsessed with trains, so I made him a "Potty TRAINing" chart. His stickers he gets for using the potty makes the train tracks, and when the track is built, we will go to Monkey Joes.



This worked like a charm! The first day he had 9 pees and 2 poops, with only one accident. That first accident was the only one he has had while at home. He went straight to big boy underwear (even at naps! hes in pull ups at night)even when not home, so we have had a few accidents when out. He refuses to use the big potty. He will sit on it, but we have not been successful with getting him to actually use them. We will get there soon!

We are on the 4th full day now, and he has not looked back. I think this may actually be it! He is VERY proud of his Thomas The Train (don't get me started... I can't stand the show, but he loves it) Underwear (that he picked out himself!) and his "Potty TRAINing" chart.



In other news, Little Miracle is sitting up, and rocking on hands and knees! He is getting TOO BIG!! He started solids a month or so ago and LOVES them too.

Story Time With Conductor Bob

Our local mall has a train that runs around inside it. Every time we go to the mall, Little Man HAS to ride the train. He LOVES that train. We ride it so often, we became friends with the main conductor, Conductor Bob.

Imagine our happiness when the mall announced that every other Wednesday is "Story Time With Conductor Bob"! Needless to say, Little Man was excited!

The first one was this last Wednesday. We woke up and got dressed. The whole time we were getting dressed Little Man was talking about the train. "We go to mall ride train Bob" he says. I was telling him that today, Conductor Bob was going to read him a story! Oh- Little Man LOVES his books, so that made his day!

We got to the mall a little early so Little Man could play on the indoor playground they have there. When story time was about to start, we headed over to the train.



We picked a good spot on the floor to sit, and waited for the story to begin. Conductor Bob read "The Little Engine That Could" (one of Little Mans favorite books!)



After the book was read, there were activities for the kids to do. The art project was sand art. Little Man had never done this before, and he likes to throw sand in the sand box (even thought I tell him no several times, and take him away from the sand box) so I was kinda nervous.

I showed him how to get the sand out of the container with the spoon and pour it into the elephant necklace that he picked out. He was instantly a pro! He picked all the colors and poured all the sand.



After our art project was complete, we went and spun the prize wheel. Little Man picked out a toy car. We then went to, of course, ride the train!

We had SO much fun with Story Time! I can't wait to see what the next one will bring!

Thankful Thursday- Doctor

I had EVERY intention of doing Thankful Thursday on time this week!! We made this card on Monday, and I just forgot to post! So here it is!

Little Miracle had a well check this week, and Little Man was sick a few weeks back, so we have been seeing a lot of our pediatrician lately. We decided to say Thank You to him for keeping Little Miracle well, and for making Little Man feel better when he is sick.

We have THE BEST pediatrician. He doesn't question my decisions to delay some vaccines, he actually has his own schedule of ones he thinks are important, and we talked it over and decided on the best schedule for my kids! He doesn't push solids early, doesn't push formula (I have NEVER been offered formula with this pediatrician, Little Mans pediatrician offered me formula at EVERY appointment..."It would be so much easier to just give him formula" when I was having problems nursing... but that is another post for another day!), and actually supports extended rear-facing. They are great at not pushing antibiotics unless they are truly needed and basically just lets the parent be the parent! I love them.

The main doctor we see there goes out of his way to make both kids feel welcome. It was an appointment for Little Miracle, but he read a book to Little Man when he came in. He always has stickers or little toys to make the kids feel better, and the waiting room has trains EVERYWHERE (even one that goes around the ceiling). Needless to say, Little Man never wants to leave!





Little Miracle even helped!



Our pediatrician was very grateful for the card. Little Man basically threw it at him, but he caught it, and talked to Little Man about his card for a few minutes. He was impressed at Little Mans artwork.

Are you teaching your kids to say Thank You?

Sweet Brother

Little Man was just getting up from taking a "quiet time" on the floor while we are on vacation. Stephen put Little Miracle down on the floor for a second also. Little Man figured Little Miracle needed a "quiet time... aka nap" also. So he proceeded to tuck him in with his blanket, then he brought over his pillow and dog. Lastly his "choc milk" cup. Now Little Miracle was set to take a nap! Too bad it didn't work!

Sometimes You Just Can't Hide

We are on vacation!! Having a great time in (usually, but not right now) sunny Florida! We come to Florida every year.

Today we decided to do a little shopping. We went to the super Target across from our timeshare and then to one of the billion souvenir shops. Then we went down the street to a clothing store that we visit every year. On the way back, there was road construction that had traffic stopped for miles. I pulled off trying to find a back road back to our condo (but someone took the GPS out of my car). Little Miracle was hungry too, so I decided to just stop and feed him. I pulled into a gas station, and into a parking spot that was near a mechanic shop. Stephen got Little Miracle out of his car seat and handed him to me in the drivers seat, and I proceeded to nurse him. A few seconds later, a man knocked on the passenger door. My mom who was sitting there rolled down the window and the man asked if we could move the car because he needed to put a car that was being towed in that spot. I jumped out and let Stephen move the car (easier than putting Little Miracle back into the car seat still hungry!). Stephen moved the car near the gas pumps. I walked over and got back in the car, while still nursing. Another minute later, a different man knocked on the window. This time the driver window. I was wearing a spaghetti strap dress so was not very discreet, but I was in the car so I did not think anyone would be seeing me! The man that knocked noticed what I was doing right after he knocked and jumped back to the passenger door, kinda unsure what to do. I rolled down the window, and he asked me to move the car again, because we were blocking the gas pumps (we were blocking one... but there was 4 of them that were still open). I told him I would move the car in a minute, when the baby was done. He said OK and moved on. I don't think he expected to see a mom nursing in the car when he set out to make us move.

Little Miracle finished nursing and I handed him back to Stephen to go back to his car seat and moved the car. It was quite an adventure. I had pulled out of the traffic to feed Little Miracle very quickly and not be noticed while doing so, and ended up being noticed and asked to move the car twice in 10 minutes! We did finally get back in the traffic and an hour after we started heading home, we made it back, just before the rain came.

Thankful Thursday - Farmer

Farmers work very hard! They are up before the sun to milk cows, gather eggs
and pick the harvest of grown fruit/veggies. We support our local farmer by buying eggs and milk from him. We will be joining the fruit/veggie group next year (we were too late to sign up this year) and we will be getting our meat from him soon. (For now it comes from Whole Foods, but it is still a local farmer that supplies it there). We decided to do Thankful Thursday today for the farmer.

We were VERY busy today (getting ready for vacation and such) so Little Man colored his card in the car on the way to bible study. Then he finished coloring it on the way to the farmer. We meet the farmer locally since his farm is about an hour away. They deliver to us!





Little Man proudly said "thank you!" as he handed the card to the farmer.

The farmer had a huge smile on his face as he read his card.

When Stephen got home tonight, Little Man ran up to him and said "I thank farmer!" I think Little Man is starting to understand this Thankful Thursday thing!

"I Draw Chalk Outside"

Ah. Summer. The time for Popsicles and driveway chalk. I found the latter when looking for Little Man a new float at Walmart. As soon as we got home Little Man attacked the box of chalk and started to try to "draw paper" (draw ON paper) with them. I then told him that chalk colors outside. He was VERY impressed, and immediately wanted to go outside to draw. We went out into our driveway and opened them up.



If you have read this blog for more than, oh 20 minutes, then you know Little Man has an obsession with trains. He always wants me to draw him a train, and I usually do. Then he colors his train.



We didn't stay outside for long because we have lots of shade and mosquitoes... and dirty socks.



After we colored the train, he even tried to color my camera. Still working on that "chalk draws on the ground" thing.



Silly man.

Thankful Thursday- Waitress

We went out to eat last night. Something we have not done in a while. It was very nice to just relax and let someone else cook and clean up for us! When you go out to eat, the wait staff usually works very hard. When you have children, they work harder. They bring highchairs, crayons, and refill your child's drink. They also clean up the mess your child makes. We try hard to not make a huge mess, but kids will be kids, and Little Man does occasionally drop a fry, some rice, or his entire plate on the floor. Waiters and waitresses deserve a special thanks every now and then too! While we were there, we made our card for the waitress.



Little Man had fun making the card at the restaurant. He also colored a pretty train.

Usually, your tip is your way of saying thank you to the waitress for their hard work. We made sure to tip extra well last night!

Thankful Thursday- Well Shoot

Well shoot. Another Thursday went by. This one snuck up on me and passed me by with out notice. We are doing the card tomorrow for this weeks, so tune in!!

Remember THAT Dog?

Remember this post? We have been on many walks since then, and that dog has not been outside or run thru his front door since. Until a few days ago. We were walking back home and saw the dog outside. He was as friendly as could be this time. Little Man was in the Ergo carrier on my back though. I finally got a picture of the dog. He looks smaller in this picture than he did when he was charging at my child, but here he is.



(cell phone pic... sorry!)

Thankful Thursday- OOPS.

Well, I woke up this morning knowing it was Thursday. I didn't know who we were going to thank. So I posted to Facebook and Twitter for ideas, and boy did they come in! Thank you so much guys!

Problem is, I got busy this afternoon and forgot. Yep. So today is Forgetful Thursday. Not quite the same ha? Maybe we will catch up tomorrow, or we may just take this week off.

Guest Blogging

I started my guest blogging a few days ago. I forgot to mention it here because we had the sickies visit us over the weekend.

Be sure to head over to Modern Alternative Mama's blog to read my introduction and see what we will be doing around here to change our diet to a more "real food" one!

Thankful Thursday- Daddy

Today we are thankful for Stephen. He works very hard so I can stay home with my babies. He does a tough job that has his phone ringing at all hours of the day. His “office hours” are 9:30-4:30 but he is always at the office long before 9:30, and is hardly ever home before 6. He is a very good daddy to our boys and a great man all around.

We sat down to make daddy a card and I let Little Man choose what color he wanted to make it out of.

Me: “Ok. What color do you want to make daddy’s card?”

Little Man: “Pink”

Me: “Pink? You sure you want to make daddy’s card pink?”

Little Man: “Yes.”

Ok… pink it is.

Little Man then picked out the pretty glitter colors for the letters and colored the card.







I almost forgot to give it to him! We went out for sushi, then went grocery shopping. We got home at bedtime for Little Man and I remembered as I was putting jammies on him. I asked him who we were thankful for today. Little Man said "thank you Daddy" and then we got daddy's card. Daddy was very touched that we thought of him!



Who are you thankful for? How are you teaching your children to say thanks?

A Mothers Day Only A Mother Could Love

I had a Mothers Day only a mother could love.

Stephen had drill this weekend, so my nice, relaxing Mothers Day started with getting the kids up, fed, dressed and out the door for church with no help. Church service was AMAZING! Pastor Ross sure knows how to give a good Mothers Day sermon (his first in 12 years, I think he said?). I worked the nursery in the second service then headed home.

When I got home, Stephen was home, so we ate lunch and put the kids down for a nap. We had a little scare when we were laying in the dark watching TV. I saw someone looking in our front window! I yelled at Stephen, and he went to the door ready to pull a gun on who ever it was. Turns out it was his mom dropping off a lawn mower. Gotta love in-laws that scare ya when they drop by without calling.

When the kids got up, we decided to go get coffee at Starbucks since they are having half price Frappuccinos. Then it was off to my favorite spot for dinner, sushi!!

So far, sounds like a good day, no?

Yeah... keep reading...

We sit down for dinner and I ordered Little Man a lemonade. They brought it in a regular cup with no lid. As I was reaching to put the pepper back (that Little Man was playing with) I knocked it over. Lemonade went all over the table and the floor. It was cleaned up quickly and we ordered dinner. Little Miracle started to get fussy, so Stephen picked him up. Stephen felt wet on his arm, so moved Little Miracle to see what it was...

Ya know those breast fed infant poops? That go EVERYWHERE? Yeah... nuff said.

So Little Miracle had to go to the car for an outfit change. When Stephen got back inside to dinner, he moved the car seat that Little Miracle was sitting in, and there was poop all over the booth! He had somehow managed to poop out of his diaper, out of his outfit, all down his car seat, and out of the crotch strap spot, dripping down onto the booth. Yeah. Fun.

Car seat had to go to the bathroom for a bath.

We finished our dinner quickly because Little Man was getting restless. He got up and tried to run around. I told him that we do not run around in restaurants but he decided not to listen. He took off and Stephen went after him. He realized he was cornered and turned to run back to me. That's when he slipped on something (maybe some of Mamas lemonade??) and hit his head HARD on the dividers for the tables.

He stopped running and started screaming. Yup. I had that kid now. The one screaming in the restaurant. I scoped him up and took him outside so Stephen could pay the bill and we would not disturb the whole restaurant. When I got him outside, I saw this.





Oh fun. Off to urgent care we went. I am not one to freak out over bumps and bruises (Little Man has 2 scars from bumps that we did not take him to the hospital for) but when he was very quiet, kinda staring off into space, we got worried.

Typical kid, he was running around 10 minutes after we got him to urgent care. The doctor checked him over and said he was fine. Just wake him up a few times tonight. Oh fun!

We left urgent care and headed for ice cream. Mama needed something after that! I am glad to be home after that dinner!